FRACTURED (8 page)

“Ruby―”

“No, Cooper! No placating statements from you, please. You
know
that I'm right. I've struggled with this for months now, and every time I think the matter is resolved, a new casualty hits and I'm right back where I started again.”

“And where is that?” he asked, looking saddened.

“I'm cursed, plain and simple. Sean said that RBs were an aberration, but maybe it's not that. Maybe
abomination
is a better word, because precious little seems to be positively influenced by my presence, Cooper. Maybe I'm some force of darkness, meant to plague the world with tragedy and sadness. Maybe the PC was right to put us all down.”

“Listen, you're tired, you're emotionally exhausted. You need to eat something and rest. You're not thinking clearly right now,” he argued, making his way over to me.

“A good night's sleep isn't going to make this go away, Coop. I'm a fucking calamity,” I said, dodging him as he reached for my arm. “Maybe you should go...move out, before something else happens to you.”

“I'm a big boy, Ruby, and I don't know how many times we're going to have this very discussion before it sinks into that thick head of yours,”

he said, lunging for my arm again, successfully that time. “I'm. Not.

Leaving. Whatever chaos may come, you and I will face it together. Fate has bonded us, Rubes. For better or worse, we're a team.”

My eyes snapped to his face as soon as the words left his mouth. I’d been bitch-slapped by a realization.

“A
pack
,” I whispered softly, my mind scanning back to a conversation I'd had with Sean on the night of our first official date. We were rehashing an argument that Cooper and I had just had before I went to see him. I couldn't figure out something that Cooper had said to me; something regarding his feelings for me and how they'd changed. How he couldn't explain them.

I'm connected to you in a way that's beyond my comprehension...

It all started to make sense: Cooper's shift in power, his need to keep me safe, our bond; he had become an
alpha
. Something in him had emerged the night he’d killed Gregory in the forest. Gregory himself had admitted that he'd underestimated Cooper's strength and power
,
and taking Gregory out only furthered those qualities. It explained how deeply he loved me and I loved him, but even more so, it made sense of why we could never quite get past being friends. We weren't meant to be
mates;
we were
pack,
and he was my alpha.

“What did you say?” he asked, his look of disbelief slowly melting into one of understanding.

“We're a pack, Cooper, you and I,” I said, standing my ground.

“Think about it. It explains
everything
, especially why you go so nuts when you think I'm in danger. Your job is to protect me.
You
are my alpha.”

For once in his life, Cooper was speechless.

I started to go into further explanation of my theory, but was rudely interrupted by a banging on the apartment door. My adrenaline spiked instantly—people pounding on my door in the past never boded well for me. Cooper shot me a look of irritation, most likely because I had once again forgotten to lock the outside door.

“I'm sorry,” I cried. “It's been a bad fucking day, Cooper.”

He muttered something while he made his way down the hall, frustrated by my ineptitude.

“It's as if you
want
someone to just walk in and kill you,” he bitched, walking in front of me.

“Hey! At least they'd still have to get through the apartment door,” I protested as I hurried up beside him. I flashed him a grin that I hoped would soften him slightly. It did, but only minutely.

“You're going to give me an ulcer if you're right about this alpha thing,” he said, reaching for the doorknob. “Now would you mind stepping behind me, please? You're harder to defend when you put yourself first in the line of fire.”

“Yes, master,” I conceded, sidestepping into a spot directly behind him, just as he’d asked. A small part of me was put off by his domineering remark, but the reality was that he was right. He would die trying to protect me in any and all situations that I managed to get myself into, most of which could likely be avoided if I took a second to think before acting. Food for thought.

Perhaps we were both getting paranoid, given that we didn't even know who was at the door, but paranoia had served us well in the past.

The other reality I still had to face was that I was essentially human and more fragile than ever. Scarlet was gone, and I couldn't depend on her to heal me if I got shot up, stabbed, or nearly clubbed to death; yet another inconvenience of her absence.

Something in his eyes flashed at my submission, and it cemented everything for me. He really was an alpha, through and through. The question that stirred in my mind was: what
kind
of alpha would he be?

“Shall we see what's behind door number one?” he tossed over his shoulder at me as he turned the knob.

What he revealed nearly stopped my heart.

8

“I see that you're still alive and doing well,” a voice said from the stairwell. Cooper growled at the man who looked past him at me. “I was worried about you.”

“
We
were worried about you,” another male voice added.

In front of Cooper and me stood the three men who had found me in Maine. One stood slightly in front of the others, so I took him to be the alpha. He was taller than Cooper and thinner too. His hair was a washed-out blond that he kept short, and his gray-blue eyes were large but dull, like he was in a constant state of exhaustion.

The two behind him were similar in size and shape, both of them with brown hair, but that’s where the similarities ended. Where one was muscular and scholarly looking, the other was a tad leaner with hardcore tats and steel decorating what I could see of his body, leading me to believe that there were many others just out of view.

“Ruby...,” Cooper prodded, wanting my explanation ASAP.

“Should I assume that this is the one you spoke of at the cabin?” the tall one asked, still ignoring Cooper to stare at me.

“Who the fuck are you?” Cooper growled, clearly unhappy with the situation.

“Coop,” I said, cozying up beside him. “These are the men I told you about. The ones who found me in Maine.”

“They're not
men,”
he replied, still staring them down.

“Okay, fine, poor choice of words.” I looked over at the males on the landing and tried to figure out what exactly was important enough to make them drive through one of the worst storms New England had seen in years. “Why are you here?” I asked bluntly, not feeling up to idle chat when there was clearly none to be had.

“We need a favor, and since you owe us one, I figured that perhaps we could make an arrangement of sorts,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.

“Like what?” Cooper asked, cutting me off before I had the chance to ask the same question.

“Refuge.”

“Like you want to
stay
here?” I asked, thoroughly confused. “I'm not a fucking hotel!”

The professorial-looking brunet stepped up to the side of the lanky blond. He looked wicked pissed off.

“We could have left you to fend for yourself in the woods where we found you,” he said, his British accent dripping with disdain. He didn't seem big on asking for help. “You didn't look too capable at that moment, so we intervened. I'd think that would buy us at least a chance to plead our case.”

Cooper's look was murderous. I had to physically grab his shirt to let him know he needed to tone it down a notch. They weren't looking for a fight, but they weren't winning any points either. Sensing Cooper's growing rage, the leader of their trio attempted to mediate.

“Alistair,” he said, his tone laced with warning. “Maybe you should step outside and cool off a bit. I don't think you're helping our situation at all.”

“Good idea,” Cooper growled in agreement. “Maybe you should
all
head outside.”

I grabbed his arm and tried to calm him slightly because I knew he was dangerously close to letting his wolf out, and that was the last thing our little impromptu party needed.

“Okay, boys, I think we need to take this down a notch,” I said, moving to get in between the men. Cooper was not having it and pushed me behind him. “If you plan to accomplish anything here tonight, I suggest you guys tread very lightly around my boy Coop. He's got a
really
short fuse, especially when it comes to me.”

“Duly noted,” the blond replied, nodding once. “So how do you want to do this?” he asked, looking nervous that I was about to boot him out of my place.

“Why don't you start by reminding me who you are,” I told him, trying to slide past Cooper again.

“My name is Janner. This is Alistair, and the quiet one is Beckett,”

he said, motioning to the other two men.

“Janner? Like
yawner
?” I asked, trying not to giggle. “How did I manage to forget that?” He had a strange accent that I couldn't even begin to place, so I shouldn't have been surprised that he had a crazy name to accompany it.

“Yes,” he said, his jaw clenching slightly. “It's a common name where I'm from.”

“So,
Janner,
what exactly is it that you need refuge from?” I said, eyeing him tightly.

“We're in a bit of a pickle...,” Janner started, choosing his words carefully. “We're in the market for a new pack. We thought maybe you would be able to help with that.”

“No,” Cooper barked, moving to slam the door in their faces. I lunged in front of him, stiff-arming the century-old door back open.

“Maybe we should hear them out, Cooper,” I said, looking up at him. “They did help me.”

“They did, though I'm sure that served their purpose more in the long run,” he snarled. “And had you not been mated, I don't think I would have liked how they went about helping you.”

“Probably not, but that didn't happen,” I argued. I looked back at Janner and company and tried to feel their energies. Something about them was guarded—I'd never felt that kind of shielding before and wasn't certain what to make of it. “Come in,” I offered, moving back out of the doorway. Cooper shot me a scathing look, which I ignored. “This should only take a minute.”

After they entered, Cooper pulled me aside and proceeded to bicker with me in front of them about me being crazy and irresponsible. I countered about him being rude and overprotective. We would have gone on forever, but a single statement jarred us both out of tirades.

“You are not her mate,” a gravelly voice called out softly. Cooper and I did an about-face to stare at Beckett, the quiet one. He may have been short on words in general, but he chose to use them when they counted. I wasn't sure I liked where he was going with that statement.

“Your bond,” he continued, moving towards me cautiously, “I don't sense it like I did before. It should strengthen around your mate, not weaken.”

I looked at Cooper with panicked eyes and saw that his feelings were very different than mine. His eyes glowed yellow, and I knew it was all about to go down because Beckett had to make that single observation known.

The other two men eyed me strangely then followed Beckett's lead, moving towards me slowly, their expressions curious. I didn't feel a menacing energy from them―I couldn't get a read on them at all.

“She isn't his,” Janner said, clearly coming to his own realization.

Cooper's growling was more menacing than I'd ever heard it, and I feared that, on the same day that I learned I had an alpha, I would lose him.

The trio kept approaching with little trepidation visible while I continued to retreat silently out the door after Cooper shoved me toward it. I quickly met resistance where I shouldn't have. Before I could turn to see what I'd bumped into, his energy slammed through me like a bull through a crowd.

Calm.

“No. She isn't his,” Sean rumbled over top of me. “She is
mine
.”

9

When I finally turned to see Sean's face, he was already leaning down, his lips at my ears.

“You didn't think you could get rid of me
that
easily, did you?” he purred, making every hair on my body stand up. Part of me wanted to cling to him violently; the rest wanted to run like hell. His comment was far too laced with double meaning for my liking.

When he pulled away slowly, I nervously waited to see the expression on his face. I was met with a middle ground of sorts. His curious smirk said “Are we still playing cat and mouse...I thought we were past that,” but his eyes told a different tale. Their forest green hue did not help to settle my need to flee.

“I am her mate,” Sean barked at the trio, who had ceased to move the second he appeared. “Anyone here care to challenge that?” He stood solidly, staring them down across the narrow divide.

Janner and Beckett slowly and deliberately shook their heads 'no'

while Alistair stared him down.

“Who the fuck―”

“Alistair!” Janner cried, shutting the other man up. “For once will you please keep your foot out of your mouth? He is not to be questioned, understood?” Alistair glared at the side of Janner's face, but said nothing else. He apparently followed directions better than I did. “I'm sorry...Alistair is
young
. He has a lot to learn yet.”

I looked Alistair over again, thinking he didn't look all that young to me, maybe a little older than myself. Then it dawned on me that he wasn't talking chronological age―he meant werewolf years.

“I think these clowns were just about to leave, Sean,” Cooper said, turning his attention away from the men for the first time. “Perhaps
you
would like the pleasure of showing them out? If not, I'm happy to do it.

Whichever you prefer.”

“No,” I said, instantly regretting my insubordination. I knew it would take a while for me to get the hang of not contradicting Cooper in front of others; our whole relationship had been built on bickering.

“Sorry,” I said, bowing my head slightly. “It's just...I'm kind of curious as to why they drove through one of the worst storms in New England's history to come here.”